The present invention relates to a system for accessing memory modules and, more particularly, to a system for accessing memory modules by using an effective address which is composed of two or more parts, one of which is determined later than the others.
In general, in computer systems, address modification, which changes an address written in a program to an effective address which is actually used for accessing memory modules, has been known and carried out. The address modification is effected by means of a modifier, such as an address mapper or an address modification table. In a small scale computer system, such as a microcomputer system, the number of bits of an effective address is larger than that of an address written in a program. Contrary to this, in a large scale computer system, the number of bits of an effective address is smaller than that of an address written in a program. In any computer system, the lower order bits of an address written in a program serve as a part of an effective address without modification, while the other higher order bits of the address written in the program are changed to the other part of the effective address by a modifier. Therefore, one part of the effective address is determined later than the other part thereof.
In one prior art system for accessing memory modules by using an effective address, one part of which is determined later than the other part thereof, after the entire effective address is determined, the access operation for the memory modules is actually executed. Therefore, the total access time is composed of an address modification time and the actual access time, which means that the speed of access of the memory modules is low.